The Returned

Series premiere 9 p.m. Thursday on Sundance Channel

The concept of the new French series “The Returned” is as simple as it is brilliant: What if the dead came back — not as rotting, hungry hordes but exactly the way they were at the time they kicked the bucket?

That’s exactly what happens in a quiet little mountain town where, one day, some of the deceased simply show up, expecting to pick up where they left off. There’s no explanation or pattern. You’ve got Camille (Yara Pilartz), who was killed in a school-bus crash when she was 14 and turns up at the family home years later, still the same age and wondering why her mom (Anne Consigny) is acting weird.

And then there’s Simon (Pierre Perrier), who died on the way to his wedding years earlier. He finds his ex-fiancée, Adèle (Clotilde Hesme), with a kid and a live-in boyfriend.

As for Julie (Céline Sallette), a restless nurse, she takes in a strange little boy (Swann Nambotin) who appears out of nowhere. Just when and how he died will emerge in due time.

The first of Season 1’s eight episodes are deceptively quiet, focusing on the freak event’s emotional aftermath and logistical implications. Camille’s identical twin, Léna (Jenna Thiam), is now 18, for instance, and the sisters’ relationship has been forever altered.

But the greatest accomplishment of the series — which premiered last year in France, Belgium and Sweden — is its atmosphere of claustrophobic dread. Ringed by snow-capped mountains and surrounded by thick woods, the neat town seems to sweat fear.

The show cleverly incorporates different types of scares: body horror (hope you won’t be snacking during those shots of peeling skin), supernatural suspense (the water at the local dam drops for no reason) and old-fashioned thriller (one of the returned is a serial killer).

But rather than jolts, “The Returned” traffics in creeping unease — the most obvious reference isn’t current shlock tactics but “Twin Peaks,” which began on ABC back in 1990.

Like David Lynch’s groundbreaking series, “The Returned” brings together unexplained events, deliberate pacing, fantastic visual style and a haunting score — Scottish post-rock band Mogwai picks up where Angelo Badalamenti left off in “Twin Peaks.”

To no one’s surprise, A&E grabbed the rights for a US remake — not to be confused with ABC’s forthcoming undead show “Resurrection,” based on an American novel titled . . . “The Returned.”

It’d be quite a feat if either of those shows came close to this stunning French import.